Cassandra (also called Alexandra), in Greek myth, the prophetic
daughter of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba his wife. For Homer, who knows nothing of her
prophetic gifts, she is the most beautiful of Priam's daughters. It was according to a
later tradition that she was loved by Apollo and given the gift of prophecy, but when she
refused his love he condemned her to the fate of always prophesying truthfully but never
being believed. She appears in Greek tragedy in this role, vainly foretelling the fall of
Troy. When Troy was captured, Ajax the Locrian, son of Oileus, found her in the temple of
Athena clinging to the sacred statue of the goddess (the Palladium), dragged her away, and
raped her. To expiate this sacrilege the Locrians were obliged to send two maidens to Troy
every year for a thousand years to serve as slaves in Athena's temple; if they were caught
by the inhabitants before reaching the temple they were executed. This obligation
continued into the second century BC. After the sack of Troy Cassandra was awarded to the
Greek commander Agamemnon as his concubine, but on their return to Mycenae she was
murdered by his wife Clytemnestra.

Cassandra was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was also called Alexandra. She was
very beautiful, but her family and the people of Troy considered her a little unbalanced.
This came about because of her gift of prophecy. When she was a child, she and her brother
Helenus were left overnight in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo. No reason has been
advanced for this night in the temple; perhaps it was a ritual routinely performed by
everyone. When their parents looked in on them the next morning, the children were
entwined with serpents, which flicked their tongues into the children's ears. This enabled
Cassandra and Helenus to divine the future. After Cassandra grew up, she again spent a
night in the temple. This time the god appeared and tried to get her to yield to his
desire, but she refused. For this affront to him he punished her by causing her
prophecies, though true, to be disbelieved. This curse failed to be effective on only one
occasion. When Paris appeared as an adult at the court of Priam, Cassandra declared him
her brother. It had been accepted by everyone that he had died in infancy from being
exposed.

After the war began, Cassandra continued to predict the calamities in store for the
Trojans. Nobody believed her but, perhaps deciding she was bad for the war effort, Priam
concealed her in a locked chamber, where she was guarded like a madwoman. Mad though she
might have been considered, she was still highly regarded for her beauty. During the war,
both Othryoneus of Cabesus and Coroebus, son of Mydon, asked for her hand, but both were
killed in the war. When Telephus reinforced the Trojans with an army of Mysians, Priam
betrothed Cassandra to his son Eurypylus. He was also killed. Cassandras curse of
not being heeded came to a climax when she announced there were men in the wooden horse.
Only Laocoon believed her, but he was soon silenced, and this seemed to confirm that
Cassandra was merely raving again.

It probably would not have mattered whether or not she was married to one of her
unfortunate suitors, as things turned out. At the taking of Troy, she fled to the temple
of Athena and embraced the statue of the goddess as a suppliant. The Lesser Ajax found her
there and, violating one of the most powerful interdicts in ancient religion, dragged her
from the temple. Some said he raped her in the sanctuary. She never learned that he paid
the supreme price for his great violence and short pleasure.

When the spoils of Troy were allotted, Cassandra was given to Agamemnon. Some said he
had spread the report that Ajax had raped her so he could have her to himself Others say
he tried to save Polyxena from being sacrificed on Achilles' grave, again to ingratiate
himself with Cassandra. He carried her with him to Mycenae, but she was scarcely in his
hands before he forced her into sexual relations. As a result of this union she became
pregnant and bore twins--Teledamus and Pelops. This poses a question. The trip to Mycenae
could not in Agamemnon's case have taken a great deal of time since, unlike several of the
other Greeks, he had no difficulties in reaching home. Therefore, he must have stayed in
Troy for a few more months--as leader of the Greek army of occupation. [. . . .] There is
the possibility that the twins were born on shipboard or even after arrival in Mycenae,
but all accounts seem to suggest that Cassandra arrived with the babies.

Agamemnon, expecting to arrive home in glory, was murdered by Clytemnestra and her
lover, Aegisthus, shortly after his arrival. Cassandra was murdered by Clytemnestra, and
the twins were killed by Aegisthus. Agamemnon's bringing Cassandra back with him is
repeated often as a principal motive for the slaughter, but Clytemnestra had reasons
enough without Cassandra. Some say that the murders took place at Amyclae, although nobody
gives a reason. This claim allowed the Amyclaeans to say that Cassandra was buried there.
She also had a statue at Amyclae and at Leuctra in Laconia. Mycenae, however, had the best
reason for saying her tomb was there, and Schliemann, the archaeologist, was certain of
this when he found the remains of a woman and two infants in one of the circle graves at
Mycenae.

The story of Cassandra is one of the most poignant of all the stories of women in the
Trojan War. Possessing the divine gift of prophecy carried with it an obligation, and the
principal responsibility would have been the protection of homeland and the whole Trojan
race. Not being taken seriously would have been frustrating and heartbreaking enough under
any circumstances, but with the safety of a whole nation at stake, Cassandra must
occasionally have approached the borders of the insanity with which she was labeled. It is
not difficult to think of her as a beautiful but disheveled young woman, wild-eyed and
shrill. It is not too much of an exaggeration to compare her with modern-day fanatics who
claim the world is ending on such and such a day. We cannot be sure that, along with
everything else, she might not have developed a reputation for being obnoxious with her
superior knowledge. The tendency is to regard her as a victim of circumstances, someone
severely wronged by men and gods alike. Her tragedy was knowing the unhappy truth and
revealing it, something highly unwelcome then as now.